guiltyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[guilt 词源字典]
guilt: [OE] Guilt is a strictly English word; no other Germanic, or indeed Indo-European language has it, and it is not clear where it came from. One theory is that, like guild and yield, it comes ultimately from Germanic *gelth- ‘pay’, and originally meant ‘debt’. This is not generally accepted, but it is notable that the German word schuld means ‘debt’ as well as ‘guilt’, with ‘debt’ being the original sense.
[guilt etymology, guilt origin, 英语词源]
guilt (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English gylt "crime, sin, moral defect, failure of duty," of unknown origin, though some suspect a connection to Old English gieldan "to pay for, debt," but OED editors find this "inadmissible phonologically." The -u- is an unetymological insertion. In law, "That state of a moral agent which results from his commission of a crime or an offense wilfully or by consent" [Century Dictionary], from early 14c. Then use for "sense of guilt," considered erroneous by purists, is first recorded 1680s. Guilt by association recorded by 1919.
guilt (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"to influence someone by appealing to his sense of guiltiness," by 1995, from guilt (n.). Related: Guilted; guilting. Old English also had a verbal form, gyltan (Middle English gilt), but it was intransitive and meant "to commit an offense, act criminally."